Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Mamey Colada Mousse Pie

Being a "foodie" I am always game to try new things. When I go to ethnic markets I will browse all the aisles and look for new and interesting ingredients to cook with. Sometimes that works out and sometimes not... Fruits and vegetables are always fun to bring home to try.

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This fruit is ripe. You can see that it is soft and a bit wrinkled and flat on top where it was sitting on the counter.

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Here is the inside of the ripe Mamey. It is bright orange and very sweet.

This past week I was given the opportunity to try a wonderful fruit! J&C Tropicals sent me a box containing Mamey. Quite frankly when you look at this fruit you would probably not think that inside the rough exterior is this really phenomenal rich, sweet orange fruit. In order to get more insight on this fruit the first thing I did was call my very good friend who owns a Cuban restaurant. I asked her if she eats Mamey. Apparently I was pronouncing it wrong because she said what? I finally showed her what I was talking about and she said ah, Mah-May. Not May-May. So that is how you pronounce it. She told me her family loves it in smoothies.

I had everyone in my family try a piece plain. The flavor reminds me at once of pumpkin and papaya yet much denser and sweeter than either. I started adding it to smoothies with strawberries and bananas and they were delicious. The next thing I wanted to make was a pie. Something tropical. Out of that thought came this pie. It is so good. It hits on all the tropical flavors with the coconut and pineapple combined with the Mamey. It actually came out very light and refreshing. Just the thing for dessert by the pool on a hot summer day....

My next post will be the Mamey Tea Bread I made. It came out so good. Perfect with a morning cup of café con leche. Finally, I went on Pinterest and searched for Mamey. While most of those posts were in Spanish I recognized one. It was for the classic Libby's pumpkin roll only made with Mamey instead. MMMM. Indeed now that I have tried Mamey I am inclined to use it in all my pumpkin recipes instead of pumpkin. It is richer and has so much more depth of flavor. It is in season during the summer months so look for it in the specialty produce aisles and give it a try. I have spotted it recently at my produce market. I also read that the puree is sold frozen in Hispanic markets so I will be on the lookout for that during the holidays for my pumpkin roll and pumpkin pie. By the way, the fruit is ripe when it becomes very soft and a little wrinkly. When you bring it home from the market let it sit on the counter until it is soft and the side sitting on the counter is flat. Okay, now on to the recipe.

1. Heat the pineapple juice to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir in the gelatin. Stir until the gelatin is thoroughly dissolved. Set aside to cool.
2. Beat the pudding mix with the milk until starting to thicken. Mix in the Mamey puree and the pineapple juice. Blend thoroughly.
3. Fold in 1/2 of the container of cool whip until blended. Pour into the pie crust. Cover and refrigerate at least four hours.
4. Serve topped with remaining cool whip.